woensdag 4 december 2013

4th December, Emily Tran

4th December, Emily Tran

Working today with the group was long but
very interesting. Over the course of the past few days, I've learned a lot
about not only water resource management but about myself as an American and as
an Israeli representitive in the program. It's a strange feeling being
considered an “Israeli” by the Wetskills program, as these past six months I
have been in the country, my American-ness has been put into intense contrast
to the Israelis that surround me. Now that I am working with students studying
the same concepts from other parts of the world, I am realizing just how much
this culture has rubbed off on me. I find myself loving the black coffee served
during the coffee breaks which I have yet to see a Dutch student drinking, and
joyfully explaining all the little intricacies of Israeli culture that were
foreign to me only 6 months ago. I've enjoyed locating a site for our project
and actually having a picture in my head of where we are working and how the
daily life there contributes to the success of the project.

At the same time, it's easy to see how
being somewhat “from” this country can also be in the way of coming up with
innovative solutions to local problems, as my first thoughts about how to deal
with a certain situation are the ones that have been taught to me. I spent so
much time studying case studies at first- what has been done and how can we
apply that to our solution. That's where the Dutch students have been amazingly
helpful- they don't know where the water treatment plants are, where the
tourists go or what the local species of trees are. They do know what works in
other countries- what makes a project self-sustainable and brings in income
rather than just serving the purpose of planting a forest for the sake of a
forest existing.

In the end I've started to understand
collaboration in the scientific community a bit better. Normally we all work on
our own projects, write our own theses, take a few pointers from our advisors
and go on our own way, but it's been a good opportunity to try something
different. Understanding where we are from and how our backgrounds present us
with strengths and weaknesses in the work that we do is often a hard thing to
remember, and occasionally we all need a bit of a reminder of how we know the
things that we know to figure out a solution to a problem. Are we just saying
something because that's what we have always been told, or are we truly
something up with something unique?